Why you should use your parking brake

AlexRTS · Mar 4, 2013

Skip to 15:25

He explains how the automatic transmission works, and tears apart a 4-speed auto out of a Toyota Corolla for demonstration. See how tiny that little parking prawl is? That's why it's a good idea when on a hill to shift to neutral (foot on brake) apply parking brake (foot off brake) and then shift to park. This allows the parking brake to take the burden of the vehicle's weight instead of the transmission.

Lingered_I · Mar 4, 2013

Amen to that

Car Compulsive · Mar 5, 2013

Has anyone ever had a parking pawl fail? I haven't, but then I live in a flat state.

AlexRTS · Mar 5, 2013

Not that I've heard of, but the sound it makes when you release the pressure from the prawl when shifting from park into drive isn't a pleasant one.

jeb · Mar 5, 2013

AlexRTS said:
Skip to 15:25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGbsgpp2YJQ

He explains how the automatic transmission works, and tears apart a 4-speed auto out of a Toyota Corolla for demonstration. See how tiny that little parking prawl is? That's why it's a good idea when on a hill to shift to neutral (foot on brake) apply parking brake (foot off brake) and then shift to park. This allows the parking brake to take the burden of the vehicle's weight instead of the transmission.

Hey sweet! I seen that video. I subscribe to his channel and I am over on his forum from time to time as well.

I liked the one on torque converters too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTfipsejqS0&feature=youtu.be

And for the record, thats off a little corolla. The ones on a ridgeline are bigger. Not a whole lot, but they are.

bluewater1 · Mar 5, 2013

Having been born and raised in West Virginia using the parking brake is pretty much ingrained in me. Level ground was tough to come by. Fortunately, the habit has stuck with me over the years.

laserguy · Mar 5, 2013

Never had an issue even in areas with hills, the parking brake in my Ford SUV did not work for 10 years, I just recently replaced the shoes, it had no shoes they fell off and no signs of them, no clue of how that happened maybe the wife drove off with the P brake on. After reading other posts here a while back I used the parking brake all the time and have told the family to use it.

Not everybody applies it on neutral, always on park but at least it's on.

rollinhonda · Mar 14, 2013

I can't imagine not using the parking brake. Ingrained in me as well I guess, even though I drove a good number of stick shifts in the earlier years. Seems like the natural thing to do.

Why you should use your parking brake

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